CSA Week 1

As part of my office's healthy living initiative, the HR department arranged to have a weekly CSA delivery to our building.  I've been interested in trying a CSA for a while, but they always seemed to expensive, or inconvenient to pick up, or like there would be too much food for one person.  This farm offers a half share, the price was reasonable, and it couldn't be easier to pick up, so I decided to commit myself for the summer.

I can follow a recipe but I wouldn't say I'm a good cook and I'm definitely not very creative.  I've figured out a few meals I can make relatively easily and I stick with those basics.  I'm hoping that this will force me to try new things and branch out of my normal kitchen comfort zone.  And I feel like by sharing it on the blog, I will be even more accountable since I know that none of you want to hear about salad week after week.

Here's what I got in the first delivery last week:

Lettuce, kale, onions, yellow squash, cucumber

Kale:

I've read about kale chips on various blogs, so I decided that they would be the perfect use of the kale I received.  I read a bunch of recipes, but ended up following the one by Smitten Kitchen.

Lettuce and Cucumber
This is where I was pretty boring.  I made a few salads and also took sliced cucumbers with my lunch.

Yellow Squash
I searched around for squash recipes and ended up following some general concepts I had seen, but not a specific recipe.  I cut up the squash and one of the onions and covered it with a mixture of bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper.  Then I baked it at 350 for 30 minutes.

All in all, I'm pleased with how I did this week.  I managed to use everything (except for a few onions, but I'll get to them this week) and tried two new recipes.